Verstappen takes 50th win with Hamilton, Leclerc excluded

AUSTIN, Texas :Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen took the 50th win of his Formula One career, and record-equalling 15th of the season, at the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday while Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from second after post-race checks.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who finished sixth, was also excluded for excessive wear of the mandatory wooden plank under the car's floor.

"Others got it right where we got it wrong and there's no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend," said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.

Hamilton's exclusion meant McLaren's Lando Norris moved up from third to second with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz completing the podium, even if the ceremonies were long over by then.

The victory was Verstappen's third in a row at Austin's Circuit of the Americas and equalled, with four races to spare, the record the Dutch 26-year-old set last year for most wins in a single season.

Dominant Red Bull and Verstappen, who started in sixth place and whose win was the first in Austin by a driver not on the front row, have already secured the constructors' and drivers' titles.

"The whole race, I was struggling a lot with the brakes," said Verstappen, who was booed by some of the crowd as he stood on the podium.

"You could see it was very close to the end."

Norris, lining up on the front row, seized the lead from pole-sitter Leclerc into the first corner but his hopes of a first win in his 100th start had faded by the half distance.

On the plus side, his points haul allowed McLaren to leapfrog Aston Martin for fourth in the constructors' standings.

Verstappen was fifth by the end of lap one and used the DRS drag reduction to take the lead from Norris